One Post wrote:
Look at that moron Christopher Columbus, he's going to sail right off the edge of the fucking planet. What a waste of time, money and resources.
Also I'm not surprised that you view the value or lack thereof of the space program only through the prism of how it has directly impacted/improved your life.
I think Pythagoras was credited proving the Earth was a sphere in about 500 BC. By 500 AD or so it was widely believed the earth was round.
The motivations of explorers varied. Economic benefits as in trade routes or actual resources, religious, political/glory, or satisfying a personal desire are valid especially in the time period you are referring to. I think an explorer's mindset and traits needed are more common among men - curiosity, bravery, risk taking, strength, etc. As time goes on and advances are made it might not matter as much.
The products that can be traced to the space travel program, some of which I use some of which I don't, are great not just for me but for society in general. Computers, foods, materials, medical devices, safety and military equipment, the list goes on, are invaluable.
However, I'm not sure the good out weighs the bad. First of all it's fucking expensive. Maybe it should be left to private companies or entrepreneurs like Musk or maybe that money would be better spent on solving issues here. If we are really worried about population or resources or area and want to colonize a place why colonize a place like mars? Aside from there being other more earth like places mars has extremely cold temps and lacks water. It has toxic soil, radiation on it's surface, and almost no oxygen. The body is also not equipt to be in an atmosphere that has 40% of the earth's gravity from a structural standpoint. It's less inhabitable than the north and south poles. Maybe I'm lacking imagination but why not send somebody to those places first. Why not build a room with Mars like conditions and figure it out? Secondly it would seem to me that in all this exploration and colonizing an almost inhospitable place for humans we will be destroying the Earth (if that's what we are doing by existing which I think is a pretty goofy train of thought but that's a different discussion) at a faster rate. The resources extracted from here and the pollution caused by a single rocket launch has to be crazy and that's when they are successful. Finally, I'm not sure how ethical or good this would turn out from a sociological stand point. We are having enough trouble holding things together here. I imagine it would be worse on Mars.
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